Study: The Pill Helped Close the Pay Gap

By

Christopher Shea

Mar 14, 2012 10:43 am ET

Setting aside the question whether insurance should cover the Pill — an issue attracting some attention of late — that form of contraception has made a tremendous difference in women’s career arcs and earnings, a new study finds. In fact, the Pill, by itself, was responsible for 10% of the narrowing of the male-female pay gap in the 1980s, and nearly a third of the narrowing in the 1990s.

The study, by Martha J. Bailey and Brad Hershbein, of the University of Michigan, and Amalia R. Miller, of the University of Virginia, took advantage of a “natural experiment” in the 1970s: States lowered their age of consent, for getting the pill without parental permission, from 21 to 18 during that decade—but did so at different times. The researchers therefore were able to compare the career arcs of women who got early access to the pill (in one state) to those who got access later (in another), controlling for demographics and other variables. Insofar as it is possible, the experiment let the researchers disentangle the direct effects of the Pill from broader legal and societal changes….